“Superman: Man of Tomorrow” Review

First off, when Apokolips War ended the DCAU, I was sad, it was a perfect universe that consisted of great animated movies one and one, while some of them were better than others, it was a great universe to watch and DC’s steadiest franchise.

So when the trailer for Superman: Man of Tomorrow released, I wasn’t sure what I thought about it, but I told myself to give it a watch because I had faith in DC and Warner Bro’s animation because of their previous films.

This is where it changed, I just finished the movie and I actually came away not angry but more disappointed with the movie in general, yes there were moments of the movie which was, I’ll not say great but good, From certain moments in the movie to characters, and fight scenes.

Story

The story was a spin on the classic Smallville origin tale to Superman. The movie started off with Clark as a child who hated the fact that he was an alien. The movie then skipped to when he was an intern at the Daily Planet and the movie essentially skipped his first “Superman moment” and also skipped over the scene where he creates his first “super suit” which consisted of a black jacket, goggles, and a black hat.

The movie quickly introduced Lex, Lois, Rudy, and a stranger who was following Clark who we later come to find out is Martian Manhunter. The movie started off really well, they quickly introduced Lobo who came to earth to look for the last Kryptonian, Clark. The two aliens quickly engage in a battle which Lobo eventually gets the best off when he introduces a Kryptonite ring and then badly beats Clark until Martian Manhunter intervenes and saves Clark who flies off to the sun to recharge.

While the Clark and Lobo fight was happening, Lobo indirectly causes the origin of Parasite. This is where, in my opinion, the movie goes downhill. I have given the movie a chance and the story had my mind invested and not focused too much on the animation. However, the movie started to revolve around Clark, Martian Manhunter, and countless people losing their power or lives to Parasite who grows to the size of Godzilla. This back half of the movie became boring and I found myself checking Twitter quite often.

Action

The action was great, even the first actual battle between Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Parasite was great. The best bit of action was hands down the Lobo fight, it was back and forth between Clark and Lobo, with Lobo pulling out a few tricks of his own. The first battle with Parasite was good too, we got to see Superman become vulnerable and even got to see his reaction to Martian Manhunter “being killed”.

Characters

I’ll start with Clark, This version of the character had parts that reminded me off the DCAU version, just younger, He also gave off so many “Smallville” vibes. Martha and Jonathan Kent were great too, the voice actors played them incredibly well.

Martian Manhunter was great, had his moments throughout the movie but the best part was his design they went with. Lobo, probably my favorite character in the movie. Ryan Hurst voiced Lobo and he was such a standout and I’d love to see him reprise the role in the future.

Now I’ll mention these next couple of characters together because they basically have the same opinions. Lois Lane and Lex Luthor were standout in their own right, Lois was a reporter who received it from Lex. Lex was his normal self, all about him and no one else, we saw his usual “I’ll help but at any point, I’ll betray you” moment.

Rudy aka Parasite, This character didn’t fit in, he seemed to come out of nowhere and simply didn’t do anything for me. His character was bland and boring.

The Verdict

The first half of the movie was great, however went downhill in the second half of the movie, I completely lost interest in the back half of the movie when it came to fighting Parasite. My favorite part was the battle with Lobo. This new animation style is rough too. The DCAU animation style will always be superior if they continue with the style they went to within this movie.

Rating: 3.7/5